There are some books that you enjoy so much that you’re wary of reading anything else by that author. It just cannot possibly be as good and it’s not worth the disappointment. White Teeth is that book for me. Set in the area in which I was born and bred, this book has a particular draw for me because it is so familiar. When I was much younger, I thought that no one would ever write about where I came from. But then along came Zadie Smith and she wrote about my hometown with such freshness and wit that I cannot help but love this book.
Smith’s debut novel is pretty epic in its scale, encompassing a wide range of characters and events. There’s Archie and Samad, comrades during the Second World War, thrown back together in North West London. Their wives, Alsana and Clara, who have the most fantastically sharp voices. Then there are their children – Irie and the twins Magid and Millat. Latecomers to the story are the Chalfens – or “Chaffinches” as Alsana refers to them – a middle-class family with a clinical intelligence who take Irie and Millat in after a pot-smoking incident at school involving their son Josh. But there’s so much more to it than that because one of the great themes in the book is history and the impact it has on future generations currently thrown together in London’s “melting pot”.
Smith’s voice in this book is a delight. The diverse range of character voices is a delicious blend of accents and slang, each one strong and recognisable. But the narrator is equally as delightful, observing proceedings with a wry humour that often had me smiling and giggling.
And they walked in a very particular way, the left side of their bodies assuming a kind of loose paralysis that needed carrying along by the right side; a kind of glorified, funky limp like the slow, padding movement that Yeats imagined for his rough millennial beast. Ten years early, while the happy acid heads danced through the Summer of Love, Millat’s Crew were slouching towards Bradford.
Smith has a gift for capturing these little eccentricities and it’s this ability to highlight the familiar that makes the book so realistic.
This is an old favourite of mine. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes a book that scoops you up in a patchwork of voice, character and fascinating detail.
Penguin, 2001. ISBN-10: 9780140276336. 560pp.
I’ve never read this and was never sure if I should. But you’ve made it sound really good, so thanks!
It’s certainly a fabulous book – though I longed to stick with the two older men and their wives as they were all wonderful. The younger people were good, I thought, but not great. So I can remember the beginning with great clarity!
Anne
xxx
I read this and another of Smith’s novels within a year of each other & really liked them. They were on the schedule for my book discussion group, but I was planning on reading the author anyways after seeing great reviews of her work. Like you, I enjoyed the “little eccentricities” and her way of capturing moments. She has a great understanding of human nature & the ways of interaction.